


Bring Him Home

by VioletTeaTime



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bisexual Cisco Ramon, Deaf Hartley Rathaway, First Kiss, Homelessness, M/M, Moving In Together, Present Tense, not my assignee's fault, oh god he's so gay, oh my god they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:34:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26867461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletTeaTime/pseuds/VioletTeaTime
Summary: "You what?" Cisco asks, alarmed."I've been living in my car." Hartley responds, hair dripping onto a blanket Cisco found in Caitlin's workshop.-for purpleyin's hartmon exchange!
Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Hartley Rathaway
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43
Collections: Hartmon Fanworks Exchange





	Bring Him Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blueelvewithwings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueelvewithwings/gifts).



> look mate i refuse to go back and rewatch the first couple seasons of this garbagefire show so uhhh,,,, this is set after eowells is gone and a little before harry shows up,,, is this canonical? no.  
> do i care? no.  
> im sorry if there are some typing mistakes, i just got a new set of nails put on and im getting used to them eek

Hartley doesn't work at STAR Labs anymore, but he's always there, Cisco notes. A silent spectre, observing but rarely commenting other than to give too-good advice and scoff occasionally. Cisco doesn't know how he gets in, but yet again, half their building is still covered in tarps and Hartley is somewhat of a genius vigilante.

Cisco's manning the computers again tonight, and Barry is on fire. Literally, tonight, which Cisco isn't that concerned about, because Barry is smart enough to stop, drop, and roll or run to water or something. He can hear Hartley shuffling about his workspace, working on his stupid sonic gloves. They seem to be the only thing Hartley still takes any pride in, as the guy shows up with ruffled hair and an oversized hoodie on half the time. Not that Cisco is complaining, it's way better to see Hartley without the stick up his ass. Hell, he's heard Hartley swear in the workplace now, which was a fucking otherworldly expirence. 

"Cisco! Do you have a six millimeter hex anywhere around here?" Hartley's voice calls, and then he ducks his head into the room to see Cisco's reaction. They've barely spoken about it, but Cisco can gather that Hartley's hearing was further fucked up from the particle accelerator, and now instead of being Deaf, he hears everything, so he has to wear deafeners to keep the sounds at bay. 

"No, there's a five millimeter hex in the bottom left drawer though." Cisco says, and Hartley's face scrunches up.

"This place has really gone to the dogs," Hartley murmurs "not even a screwdriver around for the lead engineer." Hartley disappears once again. Cisco has a private moment to smile at Hartley calling him the lead engineer before getting back on the headset.

-

It's pouring outside, which seems to have deterred organized crime for the day. One may think that heavy rain might make it a perfect time to do something, but the Rouges are the biggest problems these days, and all of them have chilled out a decent bit. Or don't want to get their hair wet. 

Hartley keeps yawning, his pale hands wound around a cup of chamomile tea. He's mostly 'turned off' to offput the sound of the rain, so Cisco gently nudges the table Hartley's elbows are on. The brunette looks up at him, and Cisco wants to cringe at the deep bags under his eyes.

"You're tired. Go home." Cisco signs, hoping he got the grammar right. Hartley's taught him a decent bit of sign recently, and with the Tuesday night community college classes, Cisco is feeling more and more confident in his ASL every day.

"I'm okay." Hartley says quietly. He doesn't like to make eye contact, which is something Cisco is more than happy to oblige. Instead, Hartley's eyes are trained on a Palmer Tablet in front of him, slowly reading an article about himself. The Pied Piper has been making headlines for 'reclaiming stolen money' from large corporations and putting it back into community outreaches. Cisco feels a weird sort of pride about it. 

"Hart, we're not going to get any more work done today." Cisco insists, and Hartley fixes him with an unamused look. 

"I think I'll stay here, Ramon, thank you." He deadpans, and then goes back to reading. Cisco catches Barry's side-eyed look and shrugs at him. 

-

An hour later, Hartley is asleep at the desk, arms pulled tight to his head. Cisco takes away the cold tea from beside Hartley's tablet, and glances down at the website Hartley had ended up on before he fell asleep. To Cisco's surprise, it's a real estate website. The prices next to the listings are too cheap for Cisco to believe that any of the rooms would be decent.

Cisco hums as he washes their mugs, knowing that it won't wake Hartley. It's some song from one of the musicals that Hartley plays when he's working, and Cisco is sure that Hartley would make fun of him if he knew that he always had these songs stuck in his head. Once he places the mugs upside down, Cisco goes back over to the older man. and gently nudges his shoulder.

"Hart, c'mon." Cisco says, and smiles to himself as Hartley curls more into himself, murmuring under his breath. 

"I don't want to get up." Comes the muffled voice.

"It's gonna hurt your neck if you sleep here." Cisco nudges him again. Hartley straightens up, blinking slowly. His glasses were smushed to his face when he was sleeping, and there are angry red marks on his nose from where the bridge had been. He fixes Cisco with one of his patented Rathaway glares, but there's a softness to his lips that betray his eyes. 

"You're right."

"Holy shit! I didn't know you had those words in your vocabularity!" Cisco laughs, gleefully, as Hartley stands from his chair. 

"Shut up." He grunts. 

Cisco walks a half-asleep Hartley to the door, and forces him to pull his hood up before they leave to cover his deafeners. Hartley still seems so out of it that Cisco asks,

"do you want me to drive you home?" Hartley shakes his head.

"I'll be okay."

"Hartley, no. You shouldn't drive when you're like this." Cisco states as they walk out the doors into the rain. 

"I'll be _fine_ , Cisco." Hartley reassures, walking towards his car at the far end of the parking lot. 

Cisco doesn't trust that one bit, and bee-lines towards the STAR Labs truck that he's commandeered as his own. He gets in and waits until Hartley gets in his car to drive over to Hartley. As Cisco pulls up close, Hartley kills the lights in his car and gets out, back into the rain. 

"Cisco! I'm fine to drive!" Hartley hisses as Cisco blocks Hartley's car in the spot.

"Dude, you've been out of it all day. Just let me drive you home." Cisco insists. 

"No."

"Hartley, please." 

"I can't!" Hartley yells, fists balled tight to his side. "I can't." He repeats, calmer. Cisco studies him for a minute, feeling guilty that Hartley is soaking wet and obviously pissed.

"Why not?" He asks, and Hartley scrubs at his face for a second.

"Can we go back inside and talk about it?"

-

"You what?" Cisco asks, alarmed. 

"I've been living in my car." Hartley responds, hair dripping onto a blanket Cisco found in Caitlin's workshop. He won't look at Cisco. Everything, at once, makes sense about the way that Hartley acts. Being there late and starting early, despite not actually working there, drinking too much coffee from the break room and swiping one of Barry's protein bars every now and again. It explains the way he dresses now, too. His style hasn't chilled out, he just doesn't have his old wardrobe anymore. 

"You're... how? You're a doctor, you could work anywhere you wanted, afford any place you wanted. Your family..." Cisco trails off when he receives a very real Rathaway glare.

"I'm not crawling back to my family, and it turns out that when Harrison Wells ruins your reputation, it stays ruined. I scrape off a little from what I take on heists but it would be too suspicious to use to actually get a nice place with." He shrugs after.

"So this has been going on since..."

"Before the accelerator exploded, yes. I had a little money saved when I was fired but student loans and hearing aids... and then after the accelerator, I spent a lot of that money on my deafeners and gloves." Hartley admits, and Cisco's heart feels like it's about to fall out of his chest.

"Hart..." He starts, and Hartley puts up a hand to stop him.

"Don't. I don't need your sympathy. I made my bed. I'll lay in it." He drops his hands back onto the table, and Cisco stares at him. 

"You don't need to, though. You're one of us, man." Cisco says, and clamps his hand on Hartley's shoulder, "you should have told us."

"What, and deal with you all knowing that I screwed my life up this much? No, thank you."

"Why don't you, uh, stay with me? I have a spare room, and we'll get you on the payroll here, if you're willing to come back like... officially." Cisco offers, and Hartley stared at him blankly.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Cisco's lips pulled up.

"C'mon, man! We could totally be shitty room mates! And you deserve to get paid for the old patents that you created, and I see you working on new things. Just... come home with me." 

They sit in relative silence for a long time, Cisco's hand still on Hartley's shoulder, the older man leaning towards him slightly. It's comfortable, as it usually is when it's the two of them. Cisco feels like they can have a full conversation without talking or signing, he can read Hartley like a book. Each look and face he pulls, each slight flick of his wrist, Cisco can find meaning in.

"Fine."

-

Cisco's condo building is old, and terrible, and he loves it. He got a fantastic price on his condo, so he won't complain about the rust smell in the lobby or the creaky doors. Hartley stands in the doorframe like he's been slapped, and it hits Cisco that Hartley probably never had a proper place to live that was... comfortable. From his upbringing in a stuffy house, to his car while he was in school, God knows where when he worked at STAR Labs the first time, to his car again... Hartley has never really had the chance to make his space his own. 

Cisco's condo has posters all over the walls and too many throw pillows on the couch. He only owns novelty mugs for drinkware, and his scented candles are all themed around different books he's read. It's a comfortable, if not eclectic, space. 

"Uh... the spare bedroom is the last door on the left of the hallway, and there's a bathroom in it. There's a laundry machine in the kitchen, for some reason. Like, its one that both washes and dries, but it's just... in the kitchen." Cisco says, and moves past Hartley to put his keys in the Death Star keydish by the door. 

"Oh, and shoes off inside." Cisco notes, toeing his sneakers off.

"Okay." Hartley puts his bag down, and starts untying his boots. After a minute, he adds, "thanks."

-

Hartley is the perfect room mate, until he isn't. He's almost too clean, putting back the pillows perfectly every time, and folding any blankets he uses. He makes a pot of coffee every morning, and he wakes up just before Cisco, so it's always ready when Cisco wants it. He cooks for the both of them occasionally, is ready to go to work on time every day, and reminds Cisco where his hair ties are when he's in a rush.

Seriously, the guy has never left a dish in the basin. Not even a fork. Cisco couldn't be happier, living with Hartley. They start going to work together everyday, and the car ride is one of Cisco's favourite times of the day. Hartley plays a new genre of music every few days, relaxing in the passenger seat as Cisco drives. He always has this soft smile on his lips, like he's glad to be sitting there, in a loud old van, on the way to a job that he gets no attention from. 

It's awesome until Hartley starts practicing yoga in the living room. He's sore all the time, probably a product of him sleeping in his car, so Caitlin sends him a YouTube video on stretches. Cisco walks out of his bedroom one morning, bleary eyed and following the smell of coffee, only to see a shirtless Hartley folded over in downwards dog pose. He's more muscled than Cisco thought, but he quickly puts it together that you have to be in pretty good shape to run around the city at night with a flute and some gloves. His torso is spotted with moles, and Cisco can see the edge of a tattoo on his side, though most of it is hidden by the pose. He blushes hard and stumbles back into the wall, which makes Hartley look up. 

The older man drops the pose and sits on the floor, squinting at Cisco, his glasses nowhere to be found. 

"Sorry. Needed space." Hartley signs, looking a bit guilty.

"No worries. It's your place too." Cisco does his best to respond, but he's sure it's shaky at best. Hartley smiles softly, and Cisco feels like he's just opened an oven by how warm his face is. 

He goes to the kitchen to drink his coffee and ignore the feeling in his gut.

-

" _How_ have you never seen Sweeney Todd?" Cisco asks, affronted. From the other end of the couch, Hartley shrugs, only the top of his face sticking out from his blanket. 

"I wasn't allowed to watch R rated movies as a kid, and I never thought about it much." He says, and Cisco lets a whine out from his chest. 

"That's horrible." He mutters, and clicks around on Netflix until he finds the movie.

They do movie nights on Thursdays, having made a deal that they were off of crime duty those nights in exchange for being on duty on Tuesdays, so Barry and Iris could have a date night. Hartley missed out on a lot of cult classics, being raised in a strict Christian household, while Cisco hadn't seen many foreign films, so they took turns showing each other their favourite films. Cisco loved most of Hartley's favourites, while Hartley was endlessly critical about the movies Cisco showed him, but smiled to himself during them anyway.

It was nice, really. Hartley pulled his blanket tighter as the movie started, and Cisco reached up to turn the table lamp off. 

"This is a kinda scary movie? It's Tim Burton, if that's okay?"

"Im a vigilante who has faced real-life supervillains. I can handle Johnny Depp." Hartley responds, rolling his eyes in the dim light. Cisco giggles, and relaxes into the couch. During _The Worst Pies in London_ , Hartley squirms around and ends up with his head on Cisco's tummy. Gently, testing the waters, Cisco strokes his hand over Hartley's short hair, and the man basically purrs.

"Is that okay?" Cisco asks, just to make sure. He feels Hartley nod against him, and goes back to petting him, only half-watching the movie.

-

Hartley is a hoodie thief. It makes Cisco wonder where his original black hoodie came from, because his entire hoodie collection is gone from his closet, and Hartley parades around in them, acting as if he wasn't wearing Cisco's high school sweater. 

"Dude, c'mon. At least leave _one_." Cisco groans, pulling a blanket around his shoulders. From the kitchen, he hears Hartley laugh, still cooking up breakfast. He doesn't know when they got this goddamn domestic, cooking and cleaning as if on a schedule, skirting around each other and cuddling. Cisco is glad to have it, even if it makes his stomach hurt to think that Hartley may just see them as really close friends. 

"I'm going out with Lisa today, do you want anything from the mall?" Hartley asks, placing Cisco's mug down on a coaster. Cisco can tell the coffee is made exactly how he likes it, even from here.

"No, but have fun." Cisco says, and smiles up at Hartley, who already has his coat and shoes on.

"Okay." Hartley leans down and presses his lips to Cisco's, then walks out the front door. 

Cisco feels itchy and warm and confused and so so fucking happy. He pats his lips with his fingertips, staring at the closed door. He blinks a few times before the door is thrown open, and Hartley is standing there, eyes wide.

"What the fuck just happened?"

**Author's Note:**

> i hoped you liked it!! this is my first ever exchange and i was really nervous throughout the whole writing process!  
> 


End file.
